Outreach Ministries: Health Fair

Here’s a secret bit of information: Most people aren’t as healthy as they think they are. Put together collection of health related activities to help people discover the means they need to be truly fit. Listed below are activity ideas for a weeklong program:

• Meet and Greet- Contact local gyms, yoga instructors, pediatricians, health food stores, and anyone else involved in personal health. Invite them to come to a Meet and Greet Day. Set up a large room with tables around the perimeter. The set up is much like a career fair, with guests handing out literature and answering questions as the public mills about. This is a good event to open or close your week, and would work best on a Saturday afternoon.
• Free Cholesterol Screening- Public screenings have the potential to detect large numbers of people with high blood cholesterol levels and can be the first step toward modifying lifestyle to reduce risk. However, public screenings must meet acceptable criteria for recruitment, reliability of measurement of cholesterol levels, appropriate educational information, properly trained staff and referral.
• Contact your local Red Cross or hospital- Ask about setting up a public cholesterol screening date at your facility. You might want to pass around a sign up sheet the week before, so the medical personnel know how many people to expect. The hospital may well charge a fee for equipment and testing. The results may take a day or two to process, so make sure you get contact information from those who participate. If hosting an actual screening is beyond your means, see if you can convince a nurse practitioner or other medical professional to come in and give a discussion about cholesterol awareness. Have plenty of literature on the subject and a list of screening locations.
• Healthy Cooking Class- Many people say they want to eat healthy, but don’t really know how to cook healthy meals. Gather a few simple recipes that use of vegetables, fruit, or light meat (chicken and fish). You may want to choose an appetizer, main dish, and side item. If your health workshop falls near the holidays, offer lighter versions of traditional favorites. Find a volunteer who enjoys cooking and have them practice these a few times. If the number of participants is small enough, you might even host the class in the cook’s home. The best part of this class is getting to eat the final project! If your cooking class is widely successful, then you might consider making it a weekly activity.
• Host a Yoga Class- Yoga can be performed by anyone of any age. It improves joint flexibility, lowers the heart rate, and reduces stress. Set up a large, open area. Lay down non-skid mats on the floor (If your church runs a day care, use their nap-time mats.) Close the blinds and turn down the lights. The goal of yoga is to be a relaxing experience. Choose some soft instrumental music. World music CD’s are perfect for this. Have your instructor teach basic movies that do not require a lot of flexibility. Classes usually last from 30 min to an hour. If the yoga class is a huge success, consider making it a weekly activity.
• Juvenile Obesity Awareness- As many as one-third of American children are thought to be obese. Have a guest speaker come and speak to parents on the potential causes of juvenile obesity and preventative measures they can take. You might also want to hold a youth seminar at the same time. Have their guest speaker talk about the problem from a kid’s point of view. Offer some healthy snacks and fun physical activities, like freeze tag or volleyball. Challenge both parents and kids to keep a log of what they eat for 24 hrs. If you wish to extend this program, hold a second meeting night in which parents and kids bring their logs and share them with each other.

Helpful Links

Cholesterol & Heart Disease Center- Information about types of cholesterol and associated health risks.

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